Simon Grayson's side have been tough to beat on their return to the Championship as evidenced by four consecutive clean sheets but goals have been as hard to come by as they have been for Dougie Freedman's Reds with PNE drawing a blank for the third time in four at home to Bolton Wanderers on Saturday evening.
The statistics, coupled with the lengthy injury list facing the visitors, do not point to the most exciting of evenings in Lancashire as Forest desperately search for a positive result to take into Friday night's City Ground clash against in-form local rivals Derby County.
Freedman will be looking for Dorus de Vries, Ryan Mendes and Eric Lichaj to be available for the trip after the trio missed out at Sheffield Wednesday.
The Scot will be fervently hoping that his own post-match script can be changed when he is interviewed on the Deepdale pitch or in the tunnel after the game.
Talk of injuries, misfortune and certainly the transfer embargo is legitimate to an extent but the Reds need to come out on the right side of close game sooner rather than later.